IESA participates at the ARPAe Innovation Summit - 2013
Since its inception in 2007, Advanced Research Projects Agency â Energy (ARPAe) has played pivotal role in funding next generation research on energy storage technologies with various rounds of $100M+ funding for some of the most innovative technologies. Since 2009, ARPA-E has funded over 275 potentially transformational energy technology projects. Many of these projects have already demonstrated early indicators of technical success. For example, ARPA-E awardees have:
o Doubled the world-record energy density for a rechargeable lithium-ion battery
o Pioneered a near-isothermal compressed air energy storage system
Dr. Rahul Walawalkar, Executive Director of IESA, participated in the ARPA-e Innovation Summit in Washington DC earlier last month to evaluate some of these technologies that were featured at the 2013 Technology Showcase at the ARPA-e - Energy Innovation Summit. Out of ~ 200+ technologies showcased, almost 40 companies had innovations related to energy storage. These include:
â CUNY: Low cost Zn-MnO2 battery
â Sun Catalytix: The artificial leaf growers go for megawatt-scale storage  Â
â Energy Storage Systems: An all-iron flow battery
â Halotechnics: Molten glass energy storage
â Tesla: Model S â Elecctric Vehicle
It was great to see the Indiaâs contribution to the cutting energy innovation, with various key team members at the ARPAe ( such as former ARPA-E Director Arun Majumdar) to key researchers developing various innovative solutions (such as CUNY Energy Institute Director Sanjoy Banerjee ). Also with the growing collaboration between US DOE and Ministry of Power / MNRE in India, there is a strong interest in furthering these natural ties into close business ties through exploration of markets and manufacturing opportunities. IESA is looking forward to playing itâs role in furthering these relations and brining these innovative technologies to India.
